Airless tyre for vehicles

Abstract

A non-inflatable vehicle tire comprising a rubber carcass molded to fit and be secured to a wheel rim with a series of equally spaced passages extending transversely through the carcass to provide resilient supporting ribs between the passages and having a road engaging tread molded to the carcass over a band of flexible steel cord reinforcing in which the band comprises a plurality of superimposed plies of coated hard steel cord and in which minor passages are provided through the ribs.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A non-inflatable vehicle tyre comprising a rubber carcass moulded to fit and be secured to a wheel rim with a series of equally spaced passages extending transversely through the carcass to provide resilient supporting ribs between the passages and having a road engaging tread moulded to the carcass over a band of flexible reinforcing, wherein the cross section of the passage form radially extending waisted ribs having an unwaisted part, within the rubber carcass, and in which the passages are inclined rearwardly relative to an axis of the tyre from an operatively outside portion of the tyre to an inside portion of the tyre, or in which at least openings into the passages are shaped to induce airflow therethrough by a radial edge of the operatively outside edge of the passage being rounded relative to a sidewall of the tyre or by an opposite radial edge of the operatively outside edge of the passage being scooped relative to the sidewall of the tyre. 
     
     
       2. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 1  made by moulding an assembly of the raw rubber carcass and rubber tread onto a wheel rim and applying the band of flexible reinforcing beneath the body of rubber tread material to complete a solid tyre, and curing the rubber under heat and pressure to bond the carcass and reinforcing to the tread. 
     
     
       3. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 1  in which the reinforcing is a steel cord band in a composite plurality of plies. 
     
     
       4. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 3  in which the steel cord reinforcing comprises hard steel coated components galvanized or coated with brass. 
     
     
       5. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 4  in which the steel cord component is of about 2 mm diameter. 
     
     
       6. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 4  in which the band of steel cord comprises a pair of outer plies with the cord components parallel to the sides of the carcass and a pair of inner plies having their cord components inclined across the carcass in opposite directions. 
     
     
       7. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 6  in which the inclination of the cord components is about 30°. 
     
     
       8. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 1  in which minor passages are provided through at least some of the unwaisted parts of the ribs. 
     
     
       9. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 1  in which radial holes are provided in the carcass extending outwardly from the passages through the tread. 
     
     
       10. A vehicle tyre as claimed in  claim 1  in which the inner circumference of the carcass is moulded to extend between flanges on the wheel rim forming a shallow channel around the rim and around a series of outwardly projecting flanged ribs along the outer surface.